Security is only as strong as its weakest link. This is true of any security, whether that would be personal security, transportation security, or cybersecurity. In this case, we are talking about cybersecurity. The weakest link in any cybersecurity strategy is people. Most ransomware attacks typically begin with a single person. So, let’s talk about employee education.
Table of Contents
Social Engineering
Social engineering is one of the most common ways hackers will exploit your business’ weaknesses. Employee education can help to stop social engineering in its tracks.
Even though ransomware might use various exploits to breakthrough computer systems and spread itself on a network, the entry point for most crypto viruses is through a human being. Human beings work differently than a computer, and as such, are susceptible to different types of attacks. Attacks against humans, like phishing attacks, are a form of social engineering that is designed to trick a person into handing over data or committing a specific act. Most social engineering victims aren’t even aware that they were duped.
As was mentioned above, the most popular form of a social engineering attack is a phishing attack. A phishing attack typically takes the form of a fake email sent to people with the hopes of tricking them into handing over information. eBay and PayPal scam emails are the most popular form of these kinds of emails.
Spear-Phishing
Spear-phishing is becoming a common tactic of hackers worldwide, but it can be thwarted with proper employee education.
A spear-phishing attack is a similar type of attack as a phishing attack accept it is highly targeted. These types of attacks require some background information before they can be used. An attacker might gather information such as the names of family members, co-workers, or friends.
Unfortunately, there is no right way of preventing these types of attacks except through employee education. Employees need to be trained to think vigilantly and identify these types of attacks on their own. It’s time to start thinking about training your employees properly and give your company the tools it needs to combat ransomware.
We all know not to click on links in emails. People have become trained to check links to make sure they don’t seem ”off”. Attackers have learned their craft well, though. Emails now come with spoofed addresses and email accounts. Fake emails are not that easy to spot anymore.
Hacker Tactics
Hackers will stop at nothing to steal your company’s information. That is why employee education should be a top priority for any organization.
Some attackers will go so far as to set up a fake website within the official domain to make attacks look even more authentic. This was the case where a security researcher recently almost fell victim to an attacker. The hacker created a fake website on a University’s domain. They took on the persona of a professor from this college. It was only by dumb luck that this security researcher wasn’t using Firefox, due to a recently disclosed zero-day exploit, that he wasn’t hacked.
The above is an example of a spear-phishing attack. These types of attacks are becoming much more common. They work, too. It’s been tough to ignore an email, despite training, that says it is from your boss. When the boss needs work done now, you do it. Security will often take a backseat when a person’s job is on the line.
Last week, we learned about a new tactic using AI to spoof an executive’s voice, leading to a loss of close to $250,000. Had the company initiated an employee education program, this may have been avoidable.
How to Protect Your Business
The majority of data breaches could have been avoided if businesses had the proper employee education protocols in place. The table above is a bit low, but it could drop significantly with adequate training.
It’s time to start your employee education training program. Employees are the weakest link in the security chain. They need to understand the risks, how to identify risks, and how to respond to them.
Upper management needs to go through security employee education training as well. Hackers view them as a much more valuable target than lower-level employees. Upper management typically holds the keys to the kingdom. They have a lot more to lose. Likewise, they also hold power over employees.
In the example above, upper management’s persona is used to gain access to the business through social engineering. The would-be attacker used fear and power to manipulate their way inside the company. Upper management needs to be aware that this is a likely attack vector. Thus, they need to adopt more empathy towards their employees, understand possible delays in actual requests, and work with IT to develop policies around such attacks.
If a business has a culture of being security-aware and adapts good policies around these types of attacks, employees have far less reason to fall for social engineering attacks. Fear of repercussion is a common social engineering vector, and rightfully so. It’s’s easy to get employees to do things when their job or professional reputation is on the line in any capacity.
Employee Education and Training
Employee education and training are essential, especially when it comes to your security. You wouldn’t want your employees to be untrained or lack the knowledge needed to get their jobs done? If you did, you wouldn’t be in business for long. Well, the same thing goes for your online security.
One last bit of advice. In the previous article, we discussed online syncing services and backups. It’s’s one thing to set up the sync client on an employee’s PC. It’s been another thing to train them and have them use it.
Please spend some time training employees on the tools they have provided to them. There are a lot of both free and paid-for training programs out there. Please take advantage of them.
It may seem rather odd to bring this topic up again in an article about social engineering and phishing attacks. Here’s the thing, though. If your employees are accustomed to using the business tools, they will work around procedures and concepts that will naturally prevent social engineering attacks. Humans are good at pattern recognition. If their workflow seems off, they will sniff it out. This is why employee education is imperative to cybersecurity. Just remember that it only takes one mistake to destroy decades of hard work.
For more information on how you can educate your employees, please call us at 480-493-5999 or send us a message today!